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Occupy Oakland sticks it to the people on Main Street not the man on Wall Street
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What has Occupy Oakland accomplished?

Has it brought Wall Street to its feet?

Has it produced any constructive ideas with actual legs that people can buy into to make society better?

Has it improved the lot of the downtrodden?

Has it uplifted the quality of life in Oakland?

The answer is no, no, no, and no.

In case anyone hasn’t noticed Oakland isn’t on the radar screen of most of the “big bad” corporations they keep chanting about or the 1 percent of America that has the lion’s share of the nation’s wealth. Occupy the Hamptons. Occupy West Palm Beach. Occupy Pacific Heights. Occupy Malibu. Occupy Beverly Hills. Occupy Vail.

But Occupy Oakland or Occupy Fresno in a bid to bring Wall Street to its knees: Get real.

It is easy to have empathy for much of the broad messages that keep emitting from the prophets du jour and self-proclaimed guardians of an American Dream with a distinctive Marxist bent. But it isn’t the stuff of revolutions – cultural or economic – are made of. Perhaps they should go a bit old school and download the lyrics to the Beatles’ “Revolution” and take the Fab Four’s advice and show the world their plan as well as remember the part about freeing your mind instead.

The world isn’t to blame for all of your ills.

Occupy Oakland has been focused on occupying and essentially nothing positive for Oakland from day one.

On the occupy side, it has done so for 35 days.

On the Oakland side it has trashed a civic plaza, damaged many of the Main Street businesses they claimed to want to help, cost struggling people ranging from independent truckers trying to provide for families a day’s of work at the Port of Oakland to retail employees money, scared many of the 99 percent away from spending money in Oakland, diverted police resources from crime plagued neighborhoods, and has consumed more than $2 million in tax dollars and counting.

That’s really sticking it to the 1 percent and Wall Street.



This column is the opinion of managing editor, Dennis Wyatt, and does not necessarily represent the opinion of The Bulletin or Morris Newspaper Corp. of CA.  He can be contacted at dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com or 209-249-3519.